208 ANTICOSTl. 



am told, a liberal Government turned pigs adrift for cast- 

 away mariners to eat; but the pigs got so hungry that 

 they ate the castaway mariners instead. 



" I met two of B.'s sons going with their sister to pay a 

 visit to their next neighbour, distant about 50 miles. 

 They travelled in a skiff', camping on the beach at night. 

 When I came across them they were in a trapper's shanty. 

 I observed a looking-glass hanging up outside, so I knew 

 that there was a lady in the case. Miss B. is about 

 twenty-two years of age, and the belle of Anticosti. She 

 had never seen any house but her father's. She is now 

 ' coming out, ' and may preside over a lighthouse yet. 



" The geology of the island must be very interesting ; 

 so numerous are the fossils, that it is almost impossible to 

 pick up a handful of pebbles from the beach without 

 finding one or two in it. Old B. offered to show me the 

 fossil of a ' lobster ' (?) perfect in the rock some distance 

 off. The prevailing rock is limestone. The soil is said to 

 be very poor, though I saw capital crops of wild hay 

 growing at the mouths of some of the rivers. The natives 

 say that cattle will not live longer on the island than one 

 year. Except in one place, they certainly do not live 

 longer, because when the cow ceases to give milk she 

 is made into beef, and a fresh one imported. B. has 

 two hungry-looking animals, which, he informed me, had 

 lived for a great part of the winter on the branches of the 

 dogwood, as his hay ran short. 



" Anticosti has no animal peculiar to itself. It is not 

 to be expected that it should have, but it is strange that 

 it wants many in fact, most animals common to both 

 shores of the mainland ; for instance, beaver, musquash, 



